[p] bob244
[pos] 34 38.007s 172 02.169e
[w] 9knt sw. 60% cc 1m sw swell
[sp] 5knt
[h] 325m
[s]
image: crew posing.
We had quite an off and on night with bursts of high speed and slow patches so we kept 2 reefs in from new Plymouth with squalls coming through with gusts up to 26knts but mostly 17-20knts steady breeze but constantly moving the sweet spot on a course towards the shore. If we tightened up we were then crashing into waves more, so we choose to suck up some of our sea room to the coast in the hope the weather changed and allowed us to track parallel again which it did thankfully.

Seas are slight and the sun is out, the wind is nearly gone. We pulled out our awesome light air sail that was gifted to us and is as old as me! We are now drifting between 4.5 and 6 knots in 9 knots of wind, great for Mirabilis.

1st order of business today figure out why we have pooling water near the companion way hatch in the cockpit, normally it runs out the back. This usually means we are bow down, which means 1\2 ton of water in the front hold which totally is flooded. Bilge pump wire had corroded and broken in the rough weather. I tested it before we left, and quickly checked the connections, but guess not carefully enough. We busted out the emergency bilge pumps and pumped it out, emptied the locker of all the stuff we tried to give away at the marina and no one wanted and repaired the connection.

And the then we noticed we were being covertly shadowed by a medium sized highly camouflaged submersible whale of which Dre wanted to ride it! This guy was truly nosy and surfaced around us 3 times while we were changing to the light air sail. The last time was no further than 5m away. What type of whale was it I hear Dani asking, well it snorted, had fins was large and swam.

It's a low power day today, little wind, sun hiding behind sails and rigging and starting to get cloudy. Determined not to run the engine but might have to give in if wind dies to nothing so then it will be a high power day yay!!

Soooo or house has now officially circumnavigated the North island of New Zealand.

Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

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